Welcome! This is written primarily for people with Type 2 Diabetes. Some information covers all types of diabetes. Always keep a positive attitude is my motto.
I am a person with diabetes type 2 and write about my experiences and research. Please discuss medical problems with your doctor. Please do not click on the advertisers that have attached to certain words in this section. They are not authorized and are robbing me by doing so.

February 24, 2011

Who Prevents Good Diabetes Management? - P3

Is it family members? How I dislike saying yes, but family members can be the worst in preventing good diabetes management. Why would I say this about loving family members. Well, loving family members can be the least understanding and the most unwilling to learn about diabetes. They just want you to take a pill and return to the life you filled with them before diabetes.

Many family members could care less about diabetes because you do not look sick and are doing the same things for them that you were doing before diabetes. Even your loving spouse can totally ignore diabetes and not want to learn about it. Why would I say these things? Because I read about this on many diabetes forums. Husbands or wives not supporting the spouse with diabetes.

Then the family members can be very irritating when they become the diabetes police. Asking you why you can still eat that piece of candy or cake when it is loaded with sugar. Even though you have allowed for this treat and compensated for it with what you have eaten, they will still not leave the subject alone. They don't understand that sugar is not the only thing you need to be careful of.

They do not understand why you will not eat many foods and have very small servings of others. They start hearing horror from well meaning friends and translate this to fear about you developing the same problems. They become your worst nightmare as the diabetes police and some can become very belligerent in their actions.

Then there are those family members that will just not cooperate. You have gotten rid of the junk food and are working to convert everyone to more healthy foods and doing more cooking and serving more fresh foods. They insist on eating no differently than the past and won't accept the change like they won't accept that you have diabetes.

There are families that do support each other and do whatever they can do to make things easier. They know and accept the change in foods and understand that things are now different and they are benefiting as well by the changes being made. This makes for a much more loving family and home. If you are so blessed, do everything to keep this blessing and make it grow.

Back to you! Now to complete the thoughts from the first part of this blog series. Yes, I am back to talking about the person with diabetes. No, I'm not going to give you a pass. We have all been through the stages of grief many people experience after receiving the diagnosis of diabetes. So get over the anger, put the denial behind you and make up your mind that you want to live and manage diabetes.

Learn that diabetes is not your fault. Could you have prevented it? Not likely. If doctors would have done screening on a regular basis, maybe, if they had paid attention to the results. The one chance you had may have passed. But if you are strong willed and decide, if you are medically able, to do the exercise and nutrition with enthusiasm, you may be capable to getting off medications for a period of time. This will depend on the damage already done to your pancreas. Some are able to stay off medications for decades while others only for a few years.

Most people do not comprehend that because diabetes is often different for each person, that they have now become their own science experiment. Testing can be very difficult as Medicare and most medical insurance companies are strictly limiting test strips that they will reimburse. Testing is a must to determine how your body reacts to different foods. Testing is also necessary to give you a report on how you are managing diabetes. Numbers are just numbers if you don't make use of them.

Good luck and learn to manage your diabetes, deal with those around you, learn to make the best use of your doctor(s), and other resources.

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About Me

I am enjoying life, despite diabetes type 2. I am retired and enjoying the time I have for writing and photography. I was diagnosed with type 2 on Oct 2003, on oral meds for 4 months and they were doing nothing to really improve my daily readings. By cutting my carbohydrates I received the most improvement, but still not enough. Then I requested insulin, even though I did not like the thought of needles. That brought about the biggest change and A1c's in the lower 6's and upper 5's. Now I am working at maintaining them under 6.0 and hopefully nearer 5.5.